Expo Line board votes to put Expo line on the existing rail that goes through the NIMBY neighborhood of Cheviot Hills.

Expo Line board votes for Exposition Boulevard route - Los Angeles Times

Expo Line board votes for Exposition Boulevard route
Light-rail line construction authority prefers the existing railroad right-of-way through Cheviot Hills for the tracks between Culver City and Santa Monica.
By Martha Groves
April 4, 2009
In a victory for environmentalists and many traffic-weary residents, the Exposition Construction Authority board has voted to use the existing railroad right-of-way along Exposition Boulevard to extend the rail line from Culver City to Santa Monica.

Although the Thursday vote does not decide the route once and for all, it represents "a milestone" for Phase 2 of the project, said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who serves on the board of both the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Expo authority.



* Santa Monica rail yard idea stirs alarm at arts complex
Santa Monica rail yard idea stirs...
* Route decision
Route decision

Phase 1, the segment that will run from downtown to Culver City, is under construction but continues to generate controversy about crossings near schools and other issues.

The Exposition route, used by Pacific Electric's Red Cars to carry passengers between USC and Santa Monica until the early 1950s, has long been the preferred choice of many local residents and environmentalists who say it is the most direct, least expensive and least damaging to the environment. After reaching Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, the line would continue along Colorado Avenue to near the ocean, the board decided.

Some opponents, however, contend that the chosen route through the Westside will produce noise and pollution, worsen traffic congestion and pose dangers for schoolchildren, pedestrians and drivers at several intersections.

The Cheviot Hills Homeowners Assn., for example, had advocated sending the line along Venice and Sepulveda boulevards rather than along the edge of Cheviot Hills. The group asserted that a light rail running along those busy commercial and residential streets would attract more riders than a route through neighborhoods of single-family homes.

In rejecting that alternative, the Expo authority indicated a desire for expediency.

"This is a project that is desperately needed," Yaroslavsky said Friday. "We want to get it done as quickly as possible so we can bring relief and alternatives to gridlock to the hundreds of thousands of people who live and work in West L.A."

Karen Leonard, a Cheviot Hills resident who lobbied for the right-of-way alignment, praised the board's decision to put a station -- probably at street level -- at Westwood Boulevard. "It's the highest projected demand on the route," she said. Samantha Bricker, the Expo authority's chief operating officer, said that of the Phase 2 stations, Westwood is anticipated to have the most daily boardings: 5,200 by 2030.

Opposing an at-grade Westwood station was Terri Tippit of the West of Westwood Homeowners Assn. "The only way it's going to be right is [if some stations] are underground," she said. "You can't have at-grade at Overland, Westwood, Military, Sepulveda, Barrington and Centinela."

"If they build it, they need to build it right," she added of Phase 2. "Don't build it the fastest, cheapest way just to have it up and running."

In most cases, Bricker said, it costs less to elevate a station than to put it underground. Grade-separated crossings are planned for, among others, Olympic Boulevard; Bundy Drive at Exposition; Pico and Gateway boulevards at Exposition; and Venice Boulevard.

The Expo authority will further analyze the right-of-way alignment for a final environmental impact report, due later this year.

Many issues remain, Bricker said, including the future of a proposed Expo bike path, grade separations and the location of maintenance facilities.

martha.groves@latimes.com

Two Minute Crash Course on Interviews by Richard N. Bolles

JobHuntersBible.com: Newsletter Archive

The Two Minute Crash Course on Interviews
Spring 2005

Parachute Newsletter
by Richard N. Bolles

In his book, "Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut," author David Shenk argues (cogently) that whereas information was once something we just couldn't get enough of, now we are all drowning in too much information.
Of course, David isn't the first to make this point. That honor belongs to Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh."

Which brings us to our subject for today: the job interview. What a superb example of David's (and Ecclesiastes') point! Go look in any book superstore, and you'll drown in information about the job interview.

David argues that we all need to acquire a new skill in this Information Age: learning how to sift information, and boil it down to its essentials. (Excuse my mixed metaphor!)

So, let me offer here "The Two Minute Crash Course on Interviews." Everything you need to know about interviews, in just two minutes reading time. (Three, if you're a slow reader.)

It divides, predictably, into Before, During, and After.

Before You Go On a Job Interview:
Do an inventory of your skills, knowledges, and traits, before you go to any interview. Figure out what makes you different from 19 other people who might be applying for that same job.

When you're ready to go out on job interviews, don't just look for places that have known vacancies. Approach any organization that interests you, even if you have to walk in off the street.

Research your 'targets' ahead of time, thoroughly, in a library or on the Web.
Once you've chosen your target(s), use every personal contact you have, rather than resumes, to get in to see the-person-who-has-the-power to hire you for the job you are interested in (that's not likely to be the human resources department).

During the Job Interview:
Always remember you are coming to the interview as a potential resource person for this employer, not as a job beggar. Keep in mind that the only purpose of a first interview is to be invited back for a second interview.

Know what you want to ask about the place, and the job. Plan on doing 50% of the talking, and let the employer talk 50% of the time (or more).

Realize that the employer has many fears about this whole hiring process, and that some fear is beneath every question the employer asks. (Figuring out what fear is behind every question can help you answer the questions most helpfully.)
Never bad-mouth a previous employer or a previous place where you worked.
Your answer (to any question) should be no longer than two minutes; it can be as short as twenty seconds. Don't run on and on!

Take into the interview room with you any evidence you have of past accomplishments. (An artist, for example, has his or her portfolio. A computer programmer has a printout of programs they have written.) You'll know whether to use this evidence or not.

No matter how many thousands of questions an interviewer could theoretically ask you, they all boil down to just five:

1.


Why are you here? What is it about this place that attracted you?

2.


What can you do for us? What do you have to contribute to what we do?

3.


What distinguishes you from 19 other people who can do this same job? See your homework, above.

4.


Will you fit in? Will you get along with, or irritate, all my other employees? And:

5.



Can I afford you? Never do salary negotiation until – in the second, or third interview – they have definitely said they want you. Always let the employer name a figure first.

After the Job Interview:
Always write a thank you note the same day, and send it to the employer. Always. (Get their card, while you're there.) Also send one to any secretary or receptionist who helped you.

Being able to do the job well will not necessarily get you hired. The person who gets hired is often the one who knows the most about how to get hired.

Hopefully, this crash course has helped make you that person.
Copyright©1996-2009 by Richard N. Bolles
All rights reserved. No part of this site may be quoted or reproduced without written permission.
For any suggested additions, updating or corrections to this site, please e-mail the Webmaster.

Quentin L. Kopp, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, addressed "High-Speed Rail — The Future" before more than 40 people at a recent Brisbane Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Radisson Hotel in Brisbane.

Carolyn Livengood: Souh San Francisco library screens documentary on city's history - Inside Bay Area

Kopp gives high-speed rail presentation

Judge Quentin L. Kopp, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, addressed "High-Speed Rail — The Future" before more than 40 people at a recent Brisbane Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Radisson Hotel in Brisbane.

Kopp explained that when voters approved Proposition 1A on the November 2008 ballot, it provided $9.95 billion as a down payment on the construction of America's first high-speed passenger train system.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority is responsible for building the train service, which is slated to eventually cover 800 miles at speeds of more than 200 mph, serving Sacramento, the Bay Area, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego. It would create 160,000 construction-related jobs to plan, design and build the system.

"By law, we are limited to 24 stations," said Kopp, who noted that a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles would take 2 hours, 38 minutes.

"The Rail Authority is currently in the first phase now of designing the actual project from San Francisco to Anaheim, over Pacheco Pass, and passing closely to Highway 99," said Kopp. "The first phase will cost $34 billion to cover 520 miles and will take eight years to complete by 2019, although I feel some stations can open earlier in 2015."

Environmental reviews have noted that electrically powered, high-speed trains use one-fifth the energy of passenger cars and one-third the energy of airplanes, according to Kopp, who added that 11 other countries already have high-speed rail.

"The new system is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions ... by more than 12 billion pounds per year and reduce demand for oil by more than 12 million barrels per year in California," said Kopp.

For route information, visual simulations and more, visit www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov

Highlights on the film career of Kurosawa

Inspiring at 100 - ScreenIndia.Com

Inspiring at 100
Posted: Apr 03, 2009 at 1504 hrs IST

Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa would have turned 99 on March 23 this year. His centennial year marks the AK 100 project that acquaints young viewers with the magical world of Kurosawa. His cinema inspired generations of filmmakers like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and many in Bollywood as well. A tribute to the genius

Life and times
What Satyajit Ray is to India, Akira Kurosawa is to Japan. Both filmmakers introduced the cinemas of their respective countries to the world. A prominent Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter and editor, Kurosawa’s first film as director Sanshiro Sugata was released in 1943, his last, Madadayo, in 1993. His many awards include the Légion d’Honneur and an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Born the youngest of eight children, Kurosawa’s father worked as the director of a junior high school operated by the Japanese military and the Kurosawas descended from a line of former Samurai. A reasonably affluent family that embraced Western culture.

Rashomon’s international take-off
In 1936, Kurosawa worked as an assistant director to Kajiro Yamamoto. After his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata, his next few films were Government propaganda films - The Most Beautiful is about Japanese women working in a military optics factory. Judo Saga is about Japanese judo being superior to American boxing.
His post-war film, No Regrets For Our Youth, however criticises the old Japanese regime and is about the wife of a left-wing dissident, who is arrested for his political leanings. Kurosawa made several more films dealing with contemporary Japan, most notably Drunken Angel and Stray Dog. It was his period film Rashomon that made him internationally-famous and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Emperor on the sets
Celebrated for his distinctive cinematic technique, which he had developed by the 1950s, and which gave his films a unique look, he used telephoto lenses, multiple cameras, which allowed him to shoot an action scene from different angles. Another Kurosawa trademark was the use of weather elements to heighten mood, like the heavy rain, heat, cold wind, snow and fog. Kurosawa also liked using frame wipes as a transition device.

Hailed as the Emperor owing to his dictatorial style of functioning, he was a perfectionist who spent all the time and effort in order to achieve desired visual effects. In Rashomon, he dyed the rain-water black with calligraphy ink for heavy rain effect and ended up using the entire local water supply in creating the rainstorm! In the final scene of Throne Of Blood, in which his favourite actor Mifune is shot by arrows, Kurosawa used real arrows shot by expert archers from a short range, landing within centimetres of the actor’s body. In Ran, an entire castle set was constructed on the slopes of Mount Fuji only to be burned to the ground in a climactic scene.

His quest for perfectionism is evident even in the costume department - he would often give his cast their costumes weeks before shooting was to begin and required them to wear them on a daily basis and “bond with them.” In some cases, such as with Seven Samurai, where most of the cast portrayed poor farmers, the costumes were worn down and tattered by the time shooting started.

Artistic influences
Kurosawa based his films on plots that are based on William Shakespeare’s works, adaptations of Russian literary works American writer Ed McBain and he also borrowed from American Westerns, while Stray Dog was inspired by the detective novels of Georges Simenon. Although he was criticised by a few Japanese critics that Kurosawa was “too Western”, he was really influenced by Japanese culture as well, including the Kabuki and Noh theaters and the Jidaigeki genre of Japanese cinema.

Inspiring filmmakers
Films by Kurosawa inspired an entire generation of filmmakers - Seven Samurai was remade as The Magnificent Seven, and the animation film A Bug’s Life is also said to be Pixar’s inspiration.
Rashomon was remade by Martin Ritt in 1964 as The Outrage. The 2005 animated film Hoodwinked applies the narrative structure of Rashomon to the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

Yojimbo was the basis for the Sergio Leone western A Fistful Of Dollars and two Bruce Willis films. The Hidden Fortress is an acknowledged influence on George Lucas ‘s Star Wars films, in particular Episodes IV and VI and most notably in the characters of R2-D2 and C-3PO . Lucas also used a modified version of Kurosawa’s wipe transition effect throughout the Star Wars saga.

Suicide attempt
Red Beard was a turning point in Kurosawa’s career - it was his last film with Mifune and his last in black-and-white. Kurosawa was signed to direct a Hollywood project, Tora! Tora! Tora! but 20th Century Fox replaced him with Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku before it was completed. His next few films found it hard to raise funds and were made intermittently over a trying period of five years. The first, Dodesukaden, about a group of poor people living around a rubbish dump, was not a success.

After an attempted suicide, Kurosawa went on to make several more films,but he had great difficulty in obtaining domestic financing despite his international reputation. Dersu Uzala , made in the Soviet Union and set in Siberia in the early 20th century, was the only Kurosawa film made that was not in the Japanese language. It is about the friendship of a Russian explorer and a nomadic hunter, and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Award gallery
Kagemusha, financed with the help of the director’s most famous admirers, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, is the story of a man who is the body-double of a medieval Japanese lord and takes over his identity after the lord’s death. The film was awarded the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival (shared with Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz). Ran, set in medieval Japan, the only film of Kurosawa’s career that received a Best Director Academy Award nomination. It was by far the largest project of Kurosawa’s late career, and he spent a decade planning it and getting it funded.

Kurosawa made three more films during the 1990s that were more personal than his earlier works. Dreams is a series of vignettes based on his own dreams. Rhapsody In August is about memories of the Nagasaki atomic bomb and his final film, Madadayo, is about a retired teacher and his former students.
Kurosawa died of a stroke in Setagaya, Tokyo,when he was 88.

2 reasons to oppose replacing Bergamot Station wth maintenance facility in sum: 1) loss of arts' center & 2) surrounding-area residents would be negatively impacted

Malibu Times > News > News Briefs

Galleries protest plans to replace Bergamot Station with maintenance facility

Art galleries and artists are circulating a petition to save Bergamot Station, an arts and cultural center in Santa Monica, which is in danger of being turned into a maintenance facility by the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority, funded by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"This decision potentially harms a rich cultural asset for the arts which serves the community in both Santa Monica and the greater Los Angeles area," wrote Wayne Blank of William Turner Art gallery, which is located at Bergamot.

Phase 2 of an exposition rail line being built by the Expo Metro Line will join Culver City and Santa Monica to the greater Los Angeles area, and will help alleviate traffic congestion. The Metro Rail Line, which begins at 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles will end at Culver City; however, the MTA's board's dream is to have it go all the way to Santa Monica.

The Bergamot Station, located at 2525 Michigan Ave, is home to the Santa Monica Museum of Art and more than 35 art galleries.

Those wishing to lodge their protests against turning the art center into a maintenance yard can e-mail the Expo Metro Line Construction Authority at Phase2@exporail.net. More information about the rail line project can be found online at buildexpo.org

MTA demonstrates the efficient use of scarce resources

Metro Deploys ‘Safety Ambassadors’ to Eastside : egpnews.com

Metro Deploys ‘Safety Ambassadors’ to Eastside

By EGP News Service

Metro deployed 12 rail safety ambassadors on Monday to help motorists become familiar with the new light rail train traffic and to educate pedestrians on how to be safe around trains during this early testing period.

The ambassadors will be located at seven Eastside intersections along the new six-mile Metro Gold Line to East Los Angeles alignment until the grand opening this summer and for three months thereafter.

The ambassadors will be at Alameda/Temple, First/Alameda, First/Mission, First/Lorena, First/Indiana, Indiana/Third and Third/Mednik. For more information, visit www.metro.com

Metrolink considering fare hikes up to 5.5%

Metrolink considering fare hikes up to 5.5% | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times

Metrolink considering fare hikes up to 5.5%
12:46 PM | April 2, 2009

Faced with rising labor and maintenance costs, the Metrolink commuter rail service is considering fare increases of up to 5.5% this year and a policy change that would require riders to share some of the cost of transferring to other transit services.

If approved by Metrolink’s board of directors in late April, fares would go up anywhere from 3.5% to 5.5% on July 1 with increases for some lines that will be higher than the system-wide average.

For example, a round-trip commute between Anaheim and Union Station in downtown Los Angeles -- now $14 -- could rise as much as 77 cents if the maximum boost is applied to that route.

Metrolink has seven lines and 56 stations, serving about 45,000 passengers a day from six Southern California counties, including Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura.


“The annual increase is due to the higher costs of operating Metrolink,” said Francisco Oaxaca, a railroad spokesman. “We are facing an escalation of costs in our labor and maintenance contracts.”

In addition, Metrolink is proposing changes in its transfer policy for passengers who connect to other transit services in Los Angeles County. Those changes could go into effect in the fall.

Currently, Metrolink subsidizes the entire cost of transfers its riders make to other transit in the six counties it serves. The proposed changes would require Metrolink passengers to share some of the costs of transferring to bus, subway and light rail systems.

Oaxaca said Metrolink must reduce its subsidy because of significant increases in the rates charged to the railroad by transit operators participating in the EZ Transit Pass program in Los Angeles County; the ongoing implementation of the TAP smart card fare payment system in Los Angeles County; and the installation of fare gates at MTA rail stations scheduled for fall 2009.

Members of the public interested in commenting on the proposed fare increases and changes in Metrolink’s transfer policy can send their views to the railroad. The e-mail address is metrolinkfares@scrra.net. Comments can also be faxed to (213) 452-0421 (addressed to Metrolink Fares) or mailed to Metrolink Fares, 700 S. Flower St., 26th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90017.

-- Dan Weikel

Rita Robinson & Jose Huizar Appointed to Metro Board

Councilman Jose Huizar Appointed to Metro Board : egpnews.com

Councilman Jose Huizar Appointed to Metro Board

By EGP News Service

L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar (CD-14) was appointed last week to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board of Directors by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Villaraigosa also appointed Department of Transportation General Manager Rita Robinson to the 13-member board of directors. Huizar will be replacing Councilman Bernard Parks, who stepped down in January, and Robinson will be replacing Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Chairman David Fleming, who resigned after the mayor appointed him to the Metropolitan Water District’s board of directors.

“From the Eastside Gold Line extension in Boyle Heights, to the Valley Boulevard Bridge in El Sereno, to my plan to bring the beloved streetcar back to Downtown Los Angeles, I have been actively engaged in major transportation issues throughout my time in office and relish the opportunity to do more,” Huizar said in a press release.

“I look forward to working with the Mayor and the entire Metro Board on building a world-class bus service and expanding rail lines as we usher in a new dawn in Los Angeles’ transportation needs and services.”

March 26 was also the last day for Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Roger Snoble on the board, the two new directors made their first appearances. Orange County Transportation Authority CEO Arthur T. Leahy is replacing Snoble who is retiring.

The new Metro Board of Directors have the responsibility to carry out voter-approved Measure R, a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects throughout the county that is estimated to bring in $40 billion in funding for transportation projects.

Snoble reportedly spent the past year pushing for the passage of Measure R and expressed desire to have consistent leadership during the implementation of Measure R.

For phase two of the expo line, MTA needs a place to store and maintain the street cars, but alas oppostion abounds.

City Hall looks for different rail yard locations

City Hall looks for different rail yard locations
By Melody Hanatani
write the author



April 03, 2009
CITY HALL — After hearing a flood of concerns from residents in the Pico Neighborhood over the proposed placement of a light rail maintenance yard near homes, Santa Monica city officials will begin exploring alternative locations.

City Hall said on Thursday that it plans to hire a real estate consultant who will be tasked with identifying different properties within phase two of the Exposition Light Rail, which begins at Culver City and passes through West L.A. before arriving in Santa Monica.

The search comes in response to an outpouring of opposition from Pico residents over a recommendation by the Exposition Construction Authority that a rail maintenance facility be placed at the Verizon site on Exposition Boulevard. The City Council last month adopted a position against the location of the rail yard and requested that the authority be vigilant and serious in finding an alternative that is not near residences.

Kate Vernez, the assistant to the city manager for government relations, said that consultants bids will be due on Monday and anticipates that the findings from the search will be presented relatively soon.

"The process will be very quick," she said. "It has to in order not to hold up the EIR [environmental impact report] for the light rail."

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City Hall could also hire a second consultant who will specialize in engineering and issues related to the operation of rail maintenance yards. Vernez said the real estate planner is estimated to cost $10,000, which would come from City Hall's Proposition A transit funds. Some of the cost could be shared with the authority.

Expo officials have said they looked at more than 40 different properties from Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, searching for sites that would meet the facility's many physical requirements — located on land that is about six to 10 acres and is next to the main line, ideally in an industrial area away from homes, providing enough parking for employees and have a reasonable shape to accommodate the tracks.

The criteria narrowed the list to a few viable candidates, including Bergamot Station and the Casden property off Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles, the latter of which was taken out of consideration because its size was deemed inadequate. Bergamot, which is known as Southern California's premier arts and cultural center, was also taken off the table not only because its size and shape were deemed inefficient for a maintenance facility, but because of its reputation.

Bergamot, which is slated to be one of a handful of Expo stops in Santa Monica, was purchased by City Hall in 1989 for rail car storage and a light maintenance yard. The former ice-making plant and water heater manufacturer was transformed into an arts center in 1994.

Monica Born, the project director for phase two, said the authority will aid City Hall in an advisory capacity. The idea is to remain west of the 405 Freeway, Born said.

"If we're able to find another site that meets our needs, I would think we would be open to it," Born said. "We did a very good effort of trying to find locations of the maintenance facility and if they're able to find another one, that would be great."

Several groups have written letters to Expo about the maintenance yard, including Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights, which is opposed to the facility being placed in the Pico Neighborhood, and a group of gallery owners and artists at Bergamot, which has requested that the station be taken out of consideration.

The Verizon site is about 6 acres and would be just off the Expo line, which is proposed to travel along Colorado Avenue. The Expo board was expected to vote on the Colorado alternative during the Expo board meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Vernez said the consultant will look for properties whose shape is conducive to storage and maintenance, has relatively flat topography and is under single or limited ownership.

"What we have to be sure is we're looking at commercial and industrial areas," Vernez said.

melodyh@smdp.com

New Year's Day 2009 marks the 62th anniversary of the arrival in Japan of the Japan Times' longest-serving and most distinguished columnist, Donald Richie

JapanFocus

Donald Richie: A lifetime's observations of Japan

By Alexander Jacoby

He saw Ginza when it was a blackened plain but for the bombed-out Mitsukoshi department store, the Hattori Building and a handful of other structures left standing. He observed the city as it was rebuilt, and its people. He observed, and then he wrote.


Donald Richie at
Nihonbashi in 1947.

New Year's Day 2007 marks the 60th anniversary of the arrival in Japan of the Japan Times' longest-serving and most distinguished columnist, Donald Richie. Richie came to Tokyo as a civilian typist for the U.S. Occupation forces in 1947, less than 18 months after Japan's surrender in World War II. He soon became a film critic for The Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper, before returning to the United States in 1949 to study film at New York's Columbia University. On his return to Japan in 1953, he began to write film criticism for The Japan Times. Apart from a stint as the first curator of the New York Museum of Modern Art's film department from 1968 to 1973, he has lived in Tokyo ever since.

Richie, 82, has written more than 40 books on Japanese subjects. He is the pre-eminent Western critic of Japanese cinema, having coauthored, with Joseph Anderson, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry -- the first book in English on the subject. He has written several subsequent film histories, as well as books on filmmakers Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. His other books have covered many subjects, earning him a reputation as one of the most respected foreign commentators on Japan.



Chronicling an era of unprecedented change, as tradition gave way to modernity, Richie's work has been at once nostalgic and forward-thinking. His favorite among his own books, the travelogue "The Inland Sea," is a poignant tribute to "the last of old Japan"; by contrast, "The Image Factory" analyzes the fads and fashions which the Japanese have adopted in the urge to be modern.



Richie's writing has always focused on individuals rather than abstractions, and he has been acquainted with many of the leading figures of postwar Japan's cultural scene. He knew Kurosawa, whose work he did much to promote. He was a friend of controversial novelist Yukio Mishima, having entertained him in New York when the young Mishima visited the city in Richie's student days. Their friendship lasted until Mishima's dramatic suicide in 1970. These relationships, and others with Japanese both famous and unknown, form the basis of his book "Public People, Private People," reprinted this year under the title "Japanese Portraits."

Alongside his many books, Richie has continued to contribute regularly to The Japan Times, and still reviews books on a weekly basis. His career as a columnist for this newspaper has spanned more than 53 years, or almost half of its 110-year history. Readers throughout Richie's time have turned to his writings, both in The Japan Times and elsewhere, for perhaps the most consistently perceptive accounts in English of Japan's postwar evolution. Tom Wolfe has called him "the Lafcadio Hearn of our time, a subtle, stylish, and deceptively lucid medium between two cultures that confuse one another." To several generations of Japanophiles, he has been a guide, teacher, mentor and friend.

Though a long-term resident, Richie continues to think of himself as a guest. For Richie as for so many expatriates, that status has offered the freedom to pursue his interests and inclinations in an environment which imposes few concrete expectations on its foreign residents. It is from the perspective of a sympathetic outsider that he has observed and interpreted Japanese society and culture.


Richie (front center) and other staffers of The Pacific
Stars and Stripes newspaper in Hibiya around 1948.

Among the particular strengths of Richie's writing is its quality of self-revelation. His subject is the relationship between the self and the environment; "The Inland Sea" is as much a meditation on his own place in Japan as on the lives of its people; while his recently published "The Japan Journals: 1947-2004" is both public chronicle and private confessional.

We celebrate Richie's 60 years in Japan by publishing this interview, conducted perhaps appropriately at a distance from his adopted home, during last year's Pordenone Festival of Silent Film in Sacile, Italy, at which Richie was a guest speaker, and which the interviewer helped to curate.

Tell me first about your life before you came to Japan.

I was born in a small town in Ohio in 1924. My parents were ordinary middle-class; my father ran a radio store; my mother was a housewife. They had one other child, my younger sister, to whom I'm still very attached. I had an ordinary bourgeois life, going to school, playing on the ball teams. The first notification that I was going to have a different kind of life was that my tastes were different. I discovered classical music; I became fond of art; I was fond of travel and reading travel accounts. In the meantime I was finding life stultifying, so when I graduated from high school, the first thing I did was leave home. I hitchhiked south and spent the summer in New Orleans, reveling in the exoticisms of the place. Then the war solved the problem by allowing me to travel widely. I was in the merchant marine from 1942 to 1945.

Ultimately Japan satisfied your travel bug.

In 1945, I was presented with a single option: going back to Ohio to start work. I discovered that the foreign service was looking for volunteers to go to the occupied countries. I filled out their papers and was allowed to choose between Germany and Japan. I had already been to Europe, and liked it, so I thought I'd go back. I chose Germany, and they, in their wisdom, sent me to Japan.

You went back to America twice. What finally made you decide to stay in Japan?

I decided very late; I like to have all options open. I knew that my work was there, my inclinations were there, and most of my emotions were there, but I didn't decide to live there until it became apparent that the main option was staying. At that point I embraced it. . . . There are places I'd rather live than Japan. I'm very fond of Greece, of Morocco, but in those places I'd die from a surfeit of pleasure or sunburn or something; I would not be productive. . . . People say, "When did you fall in love with Japan?" I never did; Japan is not lovable, but it's supremely interesting. I put a great emphasis on learning, and in Japan you learn something new every day.

Can you give an example?



U.S. MP directs traffic in Ginza without cars
in about 1947.

When you first get there everything seems different. The assumptions that people work on are not those you grew up with. You learn a different method of thinking. I still wake up in the morning wondering what I'm going to learn today. And I always learn something; I watch someone doing something and suddenly understand why, by putting everything I've learned before together. When I first came, it was daily. The first time I saw geta [wooden sandals], I didn't realize you were supposed to wear them on your feet. What you learn becomes more subtle, more sophisticated, the longer you stay; but the process is the same.

You seem to have been more revealing about your sexuality in your recent book "The Japan Journals." Did that have any bearing on your decision to stay?




One of the reasons I stayed in Japan was that sexually I could fit in there. People don't judge by the kind of standards that were used in Ohio in the '30s. So I felt at home there; I felt free, in a way I couldn't in my own country. I don't think any person ought to be evaluated on the grounds of their sexuality. Sexuality implies a specific monolithic thing, and nobody's sex life is like that. It's difficult to put a label on yourself, and I think it's very wrong to do so.

One of the reasons I like Japan is that it doesn't label. So if I've become more confessional, it's simply that, heretofore, I thought that it was nobody's business. However, I did discuss it in my journals. I had decided they were going to be published posthumously. Then three years ago I had a nearly fatal heart attack, and I realized that I wanted to put the journals out in the fashion that I wanted to see them. So I published them, and the world is treating it as though something's been divulged. It was all there, if you had eyes to see. How do I feel about it now? I feel a great deal of relief. It's a thing I don't have to think about anymore.

Was your friendship with Mishima Yukio influenced by that issue?

Mishima was, for his time and country, fairly open. When two stamp collectors get together, they have a certain camaraderie. They know the subject, and they can be at home with each other. It was that way with Mishima and me. We really never talked about the subject; but it was assumed that we knew.


Fog shrouds U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters
in the Dai-Ichi Seimei Building in Hibiya.

You've known very many Japanese people, both famous and not. Who are the ones you remember most fondly?

There's no one I don't remember fondly. Memory is a sacred trust. But there are people that I miss. I never knew filmmaker Ozu Jiro very well, but not having him there makes you miss him. I've made friends who have died; naturally I miss them. Mainly, I miss the people who taught me things. Not necessarily teachers, and they can be older or younger than I am, but these are the people whose memory I cherish, and whom I continue to see, if they're still around. This includes all sorts of people: It includes one of the maids we had in the house, it includes students, bosom friends and casual acquaintances. But I would not have had any of these in Ohio.

Writing about Japan is full of generalizations, but you write about individuals. Was that a conscious decision?

It was not conscious. If it's valid now, one reason is that I didn't even think of it; I never knew these writings would be published. "The Inland Sea" started as a private journal. Naturally I chose things which appealed to me. I didn't do things which did not appeal, like study the culture. This strong interest in people is very natural in my case. It has to do with the fact that I'm interested in details, not generalities. The more I read of Nihonjinron [a genre of writing emphasizing the purportedly unique characteristics of the Japanese], the more tired I got. I don't believe in Nihonjinron, because Japan is composed of individuals.

You have been a pioneer in promoting Japanese film worldwide. When did you first see a Japanese film, and how did you respond to it?

When I got there, the Occupation was still in its infant stages, and very rigid. There were signs on the wall: "No fraternization with indigenous personnel." You had no way of knowing the Japanese; everything was off limits. The idea was to keep the occupiers and the occupied very separate. Of course this didn't last long, because people are people. In my case, it didn't last long because I wanted to know more about the Japanese. The only Japanese I knew were in American propaganda, with slanted eyes and buck teeth and horn-rimmed glasses. I looked around, and there was nobody like that. So I wanted to find out about things. The way I had learned to find out about things was in the movies. When I was a child I was put in the theater simply to be kept quiet, so I grew up staring in wonder at the silver screen, and it became my alternate and preferred reality. So when I was presented with a new conundrum, an absolutely different kind of country, my learning method was to go to the movies and find out what it meant. . . . I would see one opaque film after another, and I would start learning.

You have lived through so many changes. Which change would you say is the most significant?

There used to be an affinity, a truce, between the Japanese and nature. The Japanese recognized the limitations of being human. You can see this in the poetry, in classical Japanese art: The idea that nature and man could live together. I've written about how, when I first got there, I saw some workmen building a wall, and there was a very beautiful tree with a low-hanging branch. I watched those men laboriously constructing a hole in the wall for the branch. Somebody asked me, "What is it you regret most about changing Japan?," and it's the same: I regret the loss of this affinity with nature. I suppose it's part of Westernization that it would be lost; now it's cheaper to tear down something than to conserve it.

Despite that regret, you've chosen to live in the most modern city in Japan. Did you ever think of relocating to an older city like Kyoto? What kept you in Tokyo?

One answer would be that I knew Kyoto would become the new Tokyo; that the Japan I admired, the symbiotic Japan, was doomed. The more honest answer is that I love the ambiguity, the anonymity of living with a mass of people. . . . I can define my solitary nature against this. I don't know whether I'd be strong enough to do that in the country. I'd become prey to all sorts of vulgar emotions like boredom. I don't like provincial Japan particularly. Some cities are beautiful, like Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, which Lafcadio Hearn liked so much, but people like Hearn are looking for a home. I've got a home: It's inside me. I don't need the reassurance of an outside thing.

The last line of your book "Tokyo" is that you are now living through what will be, in 50 years, someone else's golden age. What made the late '40s and '50s a golden age for you?

Lots of things. One, that I was absolutely new to it. Although I've never become jaded, I've become acclimatized. The freshness of the impressions made the '40s and '50s indelibly golden. Also, a lot of the changes that I deplore had not taken place. There was a kind of openness, an innocence; there was a general trust which is not to be seen now. When we ride in the subways we have the dour Tokyo face; we have people carefully examining their portable phones, not looking at anybody else; we have people plugging up their ears with Walkmans to keep human sounds out. In this great age of communication, people avoid communicating. It used to be like Thailand; people used to voluntarily smile at each other. I open myself to charges of colonialism, but I liked Japan best as a third-world country.

Even so, your writing does not tell Japan what to do. Travel writer Pico Iyer called you "the most gracious of guests." What has it taught you to be a guest for so long?

Probably some of it is just laziness. As a guest, you don't have to take the responsibility of being a host. But the common thing that you see -- Japan ought to do this, should do that -- is based on mental images which are constructed of the country. Many of the early people who started writing books were missionaries, and it was insisted that they mess into other people's lives, giving commands. I don't come from a religious family, so I was spared this, and I learned how highly the position of guest was thought of.

You are regarded as someone who's interpreted Japan for non-Japanese, but what do your Japanese readers make of you?

I don't really have Japanese readers, because so few of my books are translated. Donald Keene's books are translated, because he is a true authority, and most readers want to be told how to think. I'm in no position to do this. I merely reflect on what I've seen; I don't really have answers. For me, the detail is the most important part; if you've understood the detail, you've understood everything. This is not something that the common reader looks forward to. So the books that are translated, for instance "The Image Factory," are books that are highly opinionated: This is what readers want.

Do you want to be better known in the country where you've lived for 60 years?

I don't know. Do I care what the Japanese make of me and think of me? I think I'm more ambitious actually; I want to be a world figure. I want to become emblematic of somebody who lived successfully someplace else.

Although you value the past, you seem very focused on the future. What plans or hopes do you still have?

I appreciate the past emotionally, but intellectually I am acutely interested in the present. That's what The Image Factory is about; in my new book on film, I tried to get the youngest and newest directors, because it's part of a continuing pattern. If I don't show that pattern, I haven't shown my subject completely.

As to your question, there's a lot of work I still want to do. I intend to stay in Japan, to do what I'm doing now, until I'm no longer able.

At your age, you must be concerned about your legacy. What are you trying to do about influencing the way you'll be regarded in the future?

One of the first things was to have the journals published. The way that I presented them is how I would like to be remembered. I'm making sure that the evidence will go on after me. My papers are being received by Boston University. I want people to have the material they need in case they're interested. That's about all that I care about. I have a place reserved for me in film history, in that I happen to be the one, with Joe Anderson, who first wrote about Japanese film. I'm working to make sure that at least some of my books remain in print. Naturally, at my age, you start sweeping the floor, looking into corners and putting things into boxes. That's what I'm doing now.

This is a lightly edited version of an article that appeared in The Japan Times on December 28, 2006. Posted at Japan Focus on December 28, 2006.

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Japan wants its bullet trains to run at 310 miles per hour by 2025

Japan: Blurring the line between bullets and trains -- chicagotribune.com

From the Los Angeles Times

FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Japan: Blurring the line between bullets and trains
It's not enough that trains run on time in Japan -- they've got to break land records. In 2025, the country plans to be traveling by rail at 310 mph.

By John M. Glionna
March 24, 2009

Bullet train in Japan

Japan wants its bullet trains to run at 310 miles per hour by 2025.

Reporting from Nagoya, Japan - This is a nation addicted to speed.

And to ride Japan's super Shinkansen, or bullet train, is to zip into the future at speeds reaching 186 miles per hour.

From Nagoya to Tokyo, the scenery whizzes past in a dizzying blur as the sleek engine with its bullet-like nose floats the cars along elevated tracks -- without the clickety-clack of the lumbering U.S. trains that make you feel as though you're chugging along like cattle to market.

These days, Californians dream of a future with high-speed elevated rails that would link Southern California and Las Vegas in less than two hours, or L.A. and San Francisco in just over 2 1/2 .

Japan, meanwhile, will soon have a class of train that could make the trips in less than half those times.

This is a nation where it's not nearly enough that the trains run on time -- they've got to break land records. And even that's not enough.

By 2025, a network of bullet trains connecting major cities is to feature magnetically levitated, or maglev, linear motor trains running at speeds of more than 310 mph.

Developed for use during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Shinkansen trains were the brainchild of Hideo Shima, a government engineer who died a decade ago at the age of 96. Over the years, the trains have signaled Japanese prosperity, a gauge of just how far this technology-crazed culture has come and where it's headed.

Designed to traverse Japan's mountainous terrain, the trains use tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles rather than around them. They travel on elevated tracks without road crossings and apart from conventional rail. An automated control system eliminates the need for signals.

Officials boast that on average the trains are less than half a minute late each year, which includes delays caused by earthquakes, typhoons and snow. During the line's 45-year history and transport of 7 billion passengers, there have been no deaths from derailment or collisions.

An E-5 series of train scheduled to take to the rails in 2011 promises speeds of nearly 200 mph, improved suspensions and a car-tilting system to make the ride more comfortable on curves. Power-reclining shell seats in first class will provide what engineers call a "peaceful and soothing time during your travels."

Amtrak, eat your heart out.

But Japan isn't stopping there.

The trains planned for 2025 will reduce the travel time between Tokyo and Nagoya to 40 minutes from about 90 minutes. At that speed, commuters could go from L.A. to the Bay Area in just over an hour. Rail officials say as many as 200,000 passengers could use the line daily.

Still, the Shinkansen isn't perfect.

The trains often cause a rail version of a sonic boom as they emerge from tunnels. That's because they enter so fast that they create a bubble of air pressure that is pushed along until they emerge.

The trains remain in stations for only two minutes -- not a moment more or less -- before easing out and quickly gaining speed. By the time they reach top velocity, the world has begun to change. There's no tooth-jarring shudder as when jets lumber down the runway. This ride is smooth. The turns are gentle, peaceful, even serene, though every once in a while a passenger is awakened by the boom of a train passing by or exiting a tunnel.

For the most part, you don't realize you're traveling faster than almost any other man-made land vehicle until you look out the window and see the scenery passing by so fuzzily that you think you've lost your glasses.

For most of the ride you settle into your seat, buy a beer or coffee from the passing snack cart and realize once again that you're not in America anymore.

ERHA- one of the best, if not the best, site on the history of street cars in LA

Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California

New law against file-sharing cuts internet Traffic

BBC NEWS | Technology | Piracy law cuts internet traffic, just click here.

Piracy law cuts internet traffic
Fiber-optic cables
Sweden's new anti piracy laws are based on an EU directive

Internet traffic in Sweden fell by 33% as the country's new anti-piracy law came into effect, reports suggest.

Sweden's new policy - the Local IPRED law - allows copyright holders to force internet service providers (ISP) to reveal details of users sharing files.

According to figures released by the government statistics agency - Statistics Sweden - 8% of the entire population use peer-to-peer sharing.

Popular BitTorrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay, is also based in Sweden.

The new law, which is based on the European Union's Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED), allows copyright holders to obtain a court order forcing ISPs to provide the IP addresses identifying which computers have been sharing copyrighted material.

Figures from Netnod, a Swedish firm that measures internet traffic in and out of the country, suggest traffic fell from an average of 120Gbps to 80Gbps on the day the new law came into effect.

Traffic lite

Speaking to the BBC, Christian Engstrom, vice-chairman of the Swedish Pirate Party - said the drop in traffic was a direct result of the new law, but that it would only be a temporary fall.

We have to change peoples perception on file sharing
Kjell Bohlund
Swedish Publishers' Association

"Today, there is a very drastic reduction in internet traffic. But experience from other countries suggests that while file-sharing drops on the day a law is passed, it starts climbing again.

"One of the reasons is that it takes people a few weeks to figure out how to change their security settings so that can share files anonymously," he added.

Mr Engstrom acknowledged that the new legislation would scare a number off file-sharing, and that the odds of getting caught had increased, but said that the risks to illegal file-sharers were still quite low.

"We estimate there are two million file-sharing [computers] in Sweden, so even if they prosecuted a 1000 people to make an example of them, for an individual user it is still a very small risk."

Prolific sharer

However, for some, that risk is already a reality.

A number of book publishers in Sweden have applied to the courts, on the day the law came out, forcing an ISP to disclose the details of one file-sharer who, the publishers claim, has more than 3,000 audio books on his server.

Speaking to the BBC, Kjell Bohlund - chair of the Swedish Publishers' Association - said that until the new law was passed, they were virtually powerless to act.

"Before 1 April, the only thing we could do about illegal file sharing was to refer it to the police, who were very reluctant to take it on.
Gottfrid Svartholm Varg, partially obscured, and Peter Sunde
The Pirate Bay founders have denied the charges

"Now we can go get the courts to force ISPs to disclose the user information of an IP address.

"In two weeks time, we will know exactly who owns that IP. We can then do nothing, ask him to stop, or sue him for damages. We won't do this for small offenders, this is just for the big fish," he added.

Other companies are watching the case with interest, to determine what the court deems to be sufficient proof.

One action which began before the new legislation was the prosecution of four men accused of promoting copyright infringement via the hugely popular BitTorrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay.

The Pirate Bay hosts thousands of links to so-called torrent files, which allow for movies, TV programmes and applications to be shared online.

A verdict is expected later this month.

Public perception

Mr Engstrom said the new law was "a disaster", not just for file sharers, but for Sweden as a whole.

"Dealing with illegal file-sharing is a job for the police. It is their job to enforce the law.

"Now we have given private corporations the legal right to go after our civilians. That's not how Western democracies work," he said.

Mr Bohlund acknowledged that cracking down on illegal file-sharing was not a long term solution.

"In a study, 80% of people thought we shouldn't go after file-sharers.

"But ask them how they feel about taking money out of the pockets of musicians, authors or artists and that number falls by a significant amount," he said.

"Ultimately we have to change peoples perception on file-sharing."

Jobs going to people who live near Expo line?

March to Observe King Assassination

March to Observe King Assassination

[HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON — Martin Luther King Jr., center, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), had planned to lead a “Poor Peoples’ Campaign” in a second march on Washington in June 1968 to draw attention to the problems of economic inequality and poverty in the United States. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers.]

HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON — Martin Luther King Jr., center, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), had planned to lead a “Poor Peoples’ Campaign” in a second march on Washington in June 1968 to draw attention to the problems of economic inequality and poverty in the United States. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers.


April 2, 2009

BY CHICO C. NORWOOD

STAFF WRITER

In observance of the 41st anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference will join community organizations and unions at the “Remembering King, Realizing the Dream” march and rally April 4.

The 3-mile march, which begins at 9 a.m. along Exposition Boulevard, will start at Foshay Learning Center — at 3751 S. Harvard Blvd. — and conclude at Dorsey High School near Farmdale Avenue and Exposition Boulevard.

King was assassinated on the evening of April 4, 1968, as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in downtown Memphis, Tenn.

King had gone to Memphis to support black sanitation workers who went on strike to protest the treatment of black workers. He led a march in support of the workers on March 28. However, violence erupted and King had scheduled another march for April 8. On April 3, the night before his assassination, he delivered his famous “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” speech.

The march will focus “on the issues Dr. King died for,” said Eric Lee, executive director of SCLC of Greater Los Angeles, adding he expects about 1,000 people to participate.

“There are three basic issues. Number one: quality jobs; second: quality education; and (third): safe neighborhoods. Those are the things we’re focusing on now,” Lee said.

The march will also focus on what some see as the lack of African American construction workers in Los Angeles, he said.

Lee added that organizers chose to target the Expo Rail Line route — an 8.6-mile transportation project under construction that will run from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City along Exposition Boulevard — because it is a “shovel-ready” project and qualifies for funds from the recently passed federal stimulus bill that should bring good, quality jobs to the community.

“They are working on that line now, but you don’t see many black brothers working on that line, so we need to bring attention to that,” Lee said.

Samantha Bricker, chief operating officer of the Exposition Construction Authority, said the authority is doing everything to ensure that jobs are available in the community, and based on the numbers as of March 27, the contractor has met the 30 percent local hiring goal set by the authority.

Bricker said the authority has had several meetings with joint-venture partners to ensure that it aggressively adheres to the requirement that 30 percent of jobs goes to people in the community.

Bricker added that the authority instituted an oversight committee to deal with jobs, streamlined procedures to request local hires from unions, and met with subcontractors to ensure that they are following the local jobs programs.

These actions have resulted in 21 people being hired from the community in the last 30 days, she said on March 27. Bricker added that out of the 45 people who have been hired through the authority’s local jobs program, 45 percent have been African American.

The line will run underground from downtown to the University of Southern California and overhead through portions of the West Los Angeles area. It is designed to run at street-level through South Los Angeles.

The train line will travel about 10 feet from Dorsey High School and within 50 feet of Foshay, a collector site for school buses and where roughly 3,400 students congregate daily.

Lee said the line, as designed, raises concerns about safety.

“It drives through our neighborhood at street-level, putting our children in danger. So, I’m talking about safe neighborhoods. I want the same quality of service that USC and Culver City get,” he said.

In addressing safety, Bricker said the Expo Line is utilizing many of the Pasadena Gold Line’s features, which includes the installation of gates that will preclude cars from driving around them, pedestrian gates, and the installation of fencing in front of Foshay so no children can cross into the right of way.

“The PUC (Public Utilities Commission) has given us approval for all of the crossings except Dorsey, and we are going back to the drawing board on that,” she said. “We believe this will be a safe line and we have taken many steps to ensure the safety of this line.”

With the pending layoff of thousands of teachers by the Los Angeles Unified School District, Lee said the march will also focus attention on the impact these layoffs will have on the South Los Angeles community.

“The layoffs are going to affect teachers in the inner city more than they are in any other place because they are laying off based on seniority and based on credentials,” Lee said. “In the inner-city schools, you have predominately first- and second-year teachers, no credentialed teachers and substitute teachers … and so those are the ones that are going to be laid off … so it will impact our area more than any other area.”

In January, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education authorized the dismissal of almost 3,000 nonpermanent teachers.

LAUSD Board Member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte also could not be reached by press time.

One of the organizations participating in the march is the 5,000-member security officers’ union SEIU-SOULA (Security Officers United In Los Angeles) Local 2006. Faith Culbreath, president of SEIU-SOULA, said it is important that the unions participate in the march and contribute to what that day means.

“Our belief system is that quality jobs are a way to enrich the community,” said Culbreath, who also plans to speak at the event. “We can’t make that argument and not participate in something as important as all of the issues that we want to deal with that day. We want to make sure that those jobs (for Expo Rail) become good jobs that the community can benefit from as well as making sure that the necessary safety precautions are in place. We also want to make sure that education is a key point and key issue with the union.

“All of those different issues that involve community participation, we have to be a part of because they involve us.”

A rally will take place at noon at Dorsey High, where speakers are expected to talk about some of the same issues King fought for.

Speakers will include A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, executive director of the Community Coalition in Los Angeles.

Public Scoping Meetings April 13 - 23, 2009 for extending subway to the sea

WESTWOOD/BEL-AIR VIEW | Westside Today, just click here

WESTSIDE SUBWAY

By City of L.A. | April 01, 2009

Westside Subway Extension


Upcoming Meeting Announcement

Public Scoping Meetings April 13 - 23, 2009

You are invited to a public scoping meeting to initiate the Westside Subway extension project, the next phase of Metro’s study evaluating ways to improve mobility on the Westside of Los Angeles.

These meetings start the Draft Environmental Impact Study/Environmental Impact Report (Draft EIS/EIR) process. Moving forward for analysis in the Draft EIS/EIR are two Build Alternatives – a Wilshire Subway (Alternative 1) and a Wilshire/West Hollywood Subway (Alternative 11) – as well as a No Build alternative and a Transportation Systems Management alternative.

The Draft Environmental Impact Study/Environmental Impact Report (Draft EIS/EIR) for the Westside Subway Extension follows the 18-month Alternatives Analysis Study (AA) of the Westside Extension Transit Corridor which considered whether a transit improvement was needed in the area, and evaluated various types of transit improvements and alignments. The AA included extensive public input and recommended the two Build Alternatives for further evaluation in the Draft EIS/EIR. In January 2009, the Metro Board approved the AA and authorized the Draft EIS/EIR.

The public scoping meetings provide the public an opportunity to comment on the project purpose, alternatives, and the potential effects of construction and operation that should be considered in the Draft EIS/EIR. Metro and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will be preparing a joint document that meets the requirements of both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Agenda

Open House: 6 - 6:30pm
Project Update Presentation: 6:30 – 7:00 pm
Question & Answer Session: 7:00 - 8pm

Please Join Us

We want to hear your thoughts on this next phase of the study. Please join us at a public scoping meeting to provide your suggestions about what you would like Metro to study in the Draft EIS/EIR. Content presented at these meetings will be identical, so make sure to attend at the time and location most convenient for you.

Wilshire/Fairfax area: Monday, April 13, 6 - 8pm
Los Angeles County Museum of Art West - Terrace Room, 5th Floor
5905 Wilshire Bl, Los Angeles
Served by Metro lines 20, 720, 920, 217 and 780. Validated vehicle parking is available in the underground structure located at Sixth Street and Ogden Drive.

City of West Hollywood: Tuesday, April 14, 6 - 8pm
Plummer Park
7377 Santa Monica Bl (at Plummer Pl), West Hollywood
Served by Metro Line 4. Free vehicle and bike parking is available at the location.

City of Beverly Hills: Thursday, April 16, 6 - 8pm
Beverly Hills Public Library – Auditorium, 2nd Floor
444 N Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills
Served by Metro Lines 4, 14, 16, 704. Free 2-hour parking available in the adjacent structure.

Westwood area: Monday, April 20, 6 – 8 p.m.
Westwood Presbyterian Church
10822 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
Served by Metro Lines 20, 720, 920. Free parking available at the location.

City of Santa Monica: Thursday, April 23, 6 – 8pm
Santa Monica Public Library
601 Santa Monica Bl, Santa Monica
Served by Metro Lines 4, 20, 33, 333, and 720. Validated vehicle and bike parking is available.

For additional information or questions, please visit the Westside Subway Extension project website at metro.net/westside or contact the project information line at 213.922.6934. You can also find us on Facebook.

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition
your browser, your way... in your pocket™

Mozilla Firefox®, Portable Edition is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser bundled with a PortableApps.com Launcher as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

This Sunday: Get to Songkran, Thailand's traditional New Year by using the Red line stop at Hollywood and Western

Datebook: Wine and cheese, curry festival and Thai New Year | Daily Dish | Los Angeles Times

SUNDAY

Thai Town celebrates Songkran, Thailand's traditional New Year, by closing off Hollywood Boulevard between Western and Normandie and filling it with delicious Thai food booths, Singha beer vendors, live music, Thai boxing, dancing and traditional arts and crafts. The second annual International Curry Festival is also part of the mix, when international curry products will compete for the "Curry King" title. Thousands of people are expected, so may we suggest you arrive via subway. There's a Red Line stop at Hollywood and Western. Songkran Festival, Hollywood Boulevard, between Normandie and Western. 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Free.

New hope for high-speed rail in CA?

Almanac : Palo Alto digs in for train-tunnel battle

alo Alto digs in for train-tunnel battle
City joins new Peninsula consortium of cities, accusing Caltrain and high-speed rail agency of 'duplicity' relating to the tunneling alternative

by Gennady Sheyner
Palo Alto Online Staff

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Palo Alto is bracing for a tough, angry and uphill fight to keep the tunneling option on the table for a proposed high-speed rail system through the Peninsula.

Both city officials and residents accused the rail authority of being duplicitous relating to statements made prior to last November's statewide vote approving Proposiition 1A, the rail project, and statements being made today.

The City Council agreed Monday night to join a consortium of Peninsula cities to collectively negotiate with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the agency charged with building and operating the 800-mile, $40 billion train line linking San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The council also finalized a comprehensive, 62-item list of concerns about the San Francisco-to-San Jose section of the line and drafted a letter to Caltrain, asking it to revise its proposed agreement being negotiated with the rail authority, with the next meeting Thursday morning.

But council members expressed angry skepticism that the two agencies will reconsider their terms of agreement is unlikely to sway either. Both the rail authority and the Peninsula Joint Powers Authority -- which oversees Caltrain -- are scheduled to vote on a memorandum of understanding Thursday that would designate a "four-track grade-separated" alignment along the Caltrain corridor as the configuration of the new train line.

The proposed agreement contradicts the high-speed rail agency's repeated assertions that all options -- including deep underground tunnels -- would be carefully evaluated in the upcoming environmental impact review.

Deputy City Manager Steve Emslie said high-speed rail officials have long maintained that all options are on the table but said the proposed memorandum suggests the exact opposite. He said Caltrain officials have indicated that they are unlikely to change the memorandum along lines Palo Alto is proposing.

But he said staff still plans to attend the Thursday-morning meeting of the Caltrain board to present the city's case.

"We think it's a duplicitous message and we intend on pointing this out," Emslie said.

Councilman Pat Burt also said he was discouraged by the response from high-speed rail and Caltrain officials. He said he has become less hopeful about the city's prospects for making a difference through persuasion and collaboration.

"It's going to be a tough political fight and we're going to be both willing to do it and be effective at it," Burt said.

The rail authority plans to route the line from San Francisco to Los Angeles via Pacheco Pass through San Jose rather than an alternate route via Altamont Pass and Livermore.

The trains would travel along the Caltrain corridor on grade-separated tracks, with stops in San Francisco, Millbrae and San Jose. The agency is also considering a stop at either Redwood City or Palo Alto. Rail authority officials are just starting to put together the environmental impact report on the Peninsula section of the line between San Francisco and San Jose, and have set April 6 as a deadline for public comments on the scope of the environmental review.

Domenic Spaethling, the rail authority's regional manager for the San Francisco-to-San Jose section of the line, said Monday night that the four-track alignment mentioned in the memorandum is consistent with Caltrain's long-term vision. He said the four-track configuration to which the draft memorandum refers wouldn't necessarily preclude the tracks from being stacked, with two running above ground and two in tunnels.

The bulk of the design work has yet to be conducted, he said.

"I understand their concern, but so far we've done nothing on the project EIR" Spaethling told the Weekly at the council meeting.

Palo Alto's letter to the Caltrain board, approved 8-0 by Council (with Sid Espinosa absent), asks for "removal of any commitment to specific track design or operational condition without public input and required environmental review."

The city also pushed forward with its plan to form an alliance of Peninsula cities that could negotiate with the rail authority. Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto has been meeting with officials from other Peninsula cities on an ad hoc basis for the past several months to discuss common concerns about the rail line.

The council voted 8-0 Monday night to endorse a memorandum of understanding, drafted by City Attorney Gary Baum, that would form the basis for a consortium of Peninsula cities.

The memorandum would still have to be approved by the legislative bodies in the various jurisdictions before the consortium could become official -- only Atherton has approved it so far, but other cities are expected to join, Kishimoto said.

But even though all councilmen supported the idea of forming the new group, a few expressed concerns with the language.

Councilman Larry Klein convinced his colleagues to delete the clause granting the chairman of the consortium the power to break tie votes.

"I'd hate to be in a situation where we convinced the authority that this consortium speaks for us and then we find ourselves on the back end of a 6-2 vote and all of a sudden we're isolated without a voice of our own," Councilman Greg Schmid said.

But Baum and Kishimoto reassured the council that the city could withdraw from the consortium at any time or express an opinion independent of any consortium position.

Kishimoto said the group would allow the cities to hold regular dialogues and potentially apply for funds collectively.

Last Friday, the group discussed a plan to hold a two-week "design charette" in the next few months focusing on the high-speed-rail project. The charette, an intense workshop featuring top designers, architects and engineers, could help the cities and rail authorities come up with the best urban design for the new line.

Kishimoto said joining an official consortium would also reaffirm the cities' unity and common desire to get a well-designed high-speed-rail system running through the Peninsula.

"There is just this image of we either hang together or we hang separately," Kishimoto said.

Former Mayor Mike Cobb, who served 12 years on the council, was one of 14 speakers, most of whom urged the council to fight the high-speed rail plan vigorously, including joining a lawsuit filed by Atherton and Menlo Park as an amicus curiae, or friend of the court.

Cobb said a primary responsibility of council members is to speak for and fight on behalf of residents when there is a threat.

The high-speed rail project is a "profound threat" to Palo Alto, he said.

He accused Rod Diridon, a principal spokesman for the high-speed-rail authority, of duplicity in comments prior to the statewide election last November that all alternatives would be considered versus the "monumental arrogance" Diridon displayed in mid-March when he told the council that the route decision was already decided.

Resident William Cutler showed a projection of the Great Pyramid at Giza to represent the amount of material that would go into a mile or so of a raised rail structure through Palo Alto.

He said an elevated structure for the tracks would be "by far the largest structure and by far the ugliest in the history of Palo Alto."

Resident Jim McFall said his illustrations of an elevated wall for tracks can't compete with a pyramid, but of greater concern is research he has done that indicates the existing right of way is really 70 feet, not 75 feet as claimed by the rail project backers, which they say is wide enough to accommodate four tracks.

But McFall said there is a 6-foot easement along people's rear property lines and asked whether that has been included in the width calculations.

Longtime council observer Herb Borock said if Caltrain and the high-speed rail authority agree on a memorandum that should be interpreted as a change of the basic "project description" and should trigger a completly new environmental-impact scoping process.

Amy Friedman, a resident of Park Boulevard whose home backs up on the Caltrain tracks, said there was no notice of the implications of high-speed-rail going through her back yard when Proposition 1A was voted on last November.

"Our property value has gone down. It's very discouraging," she said.

Union members want Breda in LA to keep their jobs.

Streetsblog » Metro Board Wrap: New Members, Delayed Rail Car Decision and 2001 LRTP, just click here

Metro Board Wrap: New Members, Delayed Rail Car Decision and 2001 LRTP

by Damien Newton on March 26, 2009
3_26_09_union.jpgThere was a strong union presence at today's meeting, and most weren't wearing yellow shirts.

When I arrived at this morning's Metro Board meeting, I was surprised that the line to get in the board room stretched out the door. Most of those filling the room were members of local construction unions there to pressure the Metro Board to not allow a contract with Ansaldo Breda to expire. Ansaldo Breda is a company that constructs rail cars, currently has a contract with Metro and has "promised" to open a factory in Los Angeles County if it receives a contract to construct 100 more light rail cars for Metro utilizing Measure R funds.

The unions were ultimately successful as the Metro Board voted overwhelmingly to support extending their contract with Breda for two months. It doesn't mean they gave Breda the construction contract, but that if Breda satisfactorily fulfills its current contract that they would receive the contract for the new cars without putting it out to bid.

After a brief presentation by Metro Board Member Richard Katz, who holds one of the seats appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa and sponsored the resolution, union leaders and members took to the microphone stand to demand that the Metro Board break federal and state law and consider the location of a factory when deciding who should build rail cars. One speaker went so far as to remind the Board Members that they were all politicians and should make political decisions. "The Cathedral is down that way for altruism," he concluded to the hoots and hollars of the audience. Charming.

While Katz will go down in the record as the author of this legislation, it was clearly Villaraigosa's project. At one point the Board Chair accidently accepted a friendly ammendment to Katz's proposal without checking with the "author" and also took it upon himself as Board Chair to interrupt comments by Board Member Antonovich, who spoke against the proposal so that outgoing CEO Roger Snoble could "respond to his concerns."

Of course, there's a lot more to the debate than whether or not a factory opening would be good for Los Angeles. Breda is already three years behind schedule in delivering light rail cars under its current contract with Metro, and the cars they have built are 6,000 pounds heavier than they should be. Back in January, the Metro Board seemed interested in going to bid for the new cars, but seems to have changed its mind after an intense lobbying effort by Breda officials. For more on the history of Ansaldo Breda and Metro, read this article in last week's Times.

The oddness of the about face was noted by Board Member and Santa Monica City Councilwoman Pam O'Conner who noted Breda already had a local job program, hiring lobbyists. She also wondered what promises Breda had made to its plant employees in Pittsburgh, CA where they already have a construction plant. O'Conner ultimately abstained.

As he did with Metro's attempt to keep us safe from terrorists by installing turnstiles at some rail stations, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky poked light rail-sized holes in the proposal then voted for it. Responding to a comment by Snoble that extending the contract would allow Metro to leverage getting the cars it had already paid for, Yaroslavsky huffed, "I'm not sure who's leveraging whom here." Later, after getting a list of everything that the Metro CEO hoped to get out of the contract, including on time delivery of the cars, Yaroslavsky wondered how that would be possible since they are already 3 months late.

3_26_09_huizar.jpgvia CD14 Blog
In other news, Mayor Villaraigosa finally appointed two new members to the Metro Board to join him and Katz in representing the city. Surprisingly, the new members were LADOT General Manager Rita Robinson and City Councilman Jose Huizar. It had been widely speculated that Villaraigosa would appoint Bill Rosendahl to the spot for City Council Members because he has been involved in many transportation issues and is rumored to succeed Wendy Greuel as chair of the City's transportation committee. As I noted back when Bernard Parks stepped down from the Board, Huizar is no stranger to transportation issues:

Recently, he was the Council Member who first brought the idea of piloting late night train service during the holiday season that ran on completely private funding from November until January. He is a major force behind bringing trolley service to Broadway and was one of the few Council Members who aggressively fought Metro's service cut plans for buses in the Spring of last year.

Oh, and unlike many Board Members, Huizar knows how to ride a bus. He is also an outspoken advocate for bringing a trolley to broadway, a project that thrills East Side and Valley pols that are still trying to get additions to the Gold Line.

While Robinson earns high marks for her organizational and leadership skills, she's hardly known for her expertise on transportation. True to form, I'm not sure she made one comment in the over three hour meeting after accepting her new seat.

Metro also debated officially adding the Measure R project list to the Long Range Plan. I have to admit to getting it wrong yesterday. I assumed they were adding it to the Draft LRTP from last year that is still languishing waiting for a final vote. The vote was actually to add it to the 2001 LRTP which Metro is still operating under. But don't worry, they sent it back to committee for no apparent reason so it wasn't added to any LRTP.

Oh, and the 2008 LRTP? The Board is planning on voting on it sometime this summer.

Update on rail-connector hearings and the alternatives being discussed taking place this week.

Streetsblog » Students, Professors Acitivsts Call for Grade-Separated Connector, just click here.

Students, Professors Acitivsts Call for Grade-Separated Connector

by Damien Newton on March 31, 2009



Last night Metro, kicked off a week of public outreach for the environmental studies for the Downtown Connector,aka Regional Connector, with a meeting at the University of Southern California. This marked the first time that they held a meeting at USC as previous efforts had focused on the Downtown and Chinatown. For those new to the project, this project will connect the Blue, Gold and Expo Lines providing one-seat rides from Pasadena to Long Beach and vice-versa. The connector could save riders up to 21 minutes if a rider from Long Beach needed to get to Pasadena and had to transfer multiple times and buy multiple tickets. For more details of the project, go to the project's official website or check out this great article from Blogdowntown.

There wasn't a lot of news from last night's meeting. The same four alternatives that the Metro Board passed in January are still on the table, despite a quick lobbying effort from City Councilman Tom LaBonge to have the connector run along the Alameda instead of the current route along Flower and Second Street.

At this point, there are basically two alternatives to build the line being studied as well as a no-build option or Transportation Demand Management option. A TDM option is basically using more buses and modern intersections to increase traffic flow.

Meanwhile the two alternatives would have trains running along identical routes, up Flower Street, take a right at 2nd through the Downtown until connecting with the Gold Lne Station in Little Tokyo. However, the at-grade also run up and down Main and Los Angeles Street to connect to Temple Street before heading into Little Tokyo.

At previous meetings, concerns over the light rail's traffic impacts and the construction of a new station in Luttle Tokyo were the key points of testimony; but weren't mentioned last night. In addition to LaBonge, the public testimony included remarks by USC Professor Najmedin Meshkati, various students and other rail activists. Professor Meshkati, an outspoken opponent of at-grade crossings for the Expo Line, warned Metro to build this project correctly the first time, i.e. to build it below grade.

Meshkati, an expert on factoring human behavior into transit planning, pleaded with Metro not to build at-grade light rail because he didn't want to spend hundreds of pro-bono hours fighting with them again, "I would give the plan for Expo a C-, if I was feeling generous...I plead with you not to do this again."

Meshkati's remarks were echoed by all of the half dozen speakers who joined him, including Justin Walker who represents the USC Chapter of CALPIRG.

There are still three more public meetings on the project this week. Or if you can't make it out this week but want to have your say; you can send testimony to regionalconnector@metro.net before the May 11 deadline.

How to put money on your TAP card.

Leave it to MTA to not make it easy to find this important link. But here it is:

https://www.taptogo.net/ecustomer_enu/start.swe?SWECmd=Login&SWECM=S&SWEHo=www.taptogo.net

The Japanese Movie theater, The Linda Lea, that was in downtown and lost views of downtown

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielsfv/LindaLeaAndViewsBeforeLAPDHQWasBuilt?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWtiou71YzcKw#

On the Wishire corridor: a Church restored with money from selling its parking lot and the last empty lot.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pedestrianviewofla/AChurchRestoredAndTheLastEmptyLotOnTheWilshireCorridor?authkey=Gv1sRgCMSMjavUjqvY_AE&feat=directlink

Hearings for the downtown rail connector

Hearings set for Blue and Gold light rail link plans - ContraCostaTimes.com

Hearings set for Blue and Gold light rail link plans
Daily News Wire Services
Posted: 03/30/2009 06:44:24 AM PDT
Updated: 03/30/2009 06:45:56 AM PDT

The public will have four opportunities beginning today to offer input on a proposed project to link the Blue and Gold light rail lines in downtown Los Angeles.

Under the current system, a transfer from the Blue Line to the Gold Line requires a transfer to the Red Line between Metro Center and Union Station.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will hold four meetings to gather public comment as part of an environmental review analyzing different possibilities for building the proposed two-mile link to simplify the process.

Eventually, the regional connector is envisioned to connect up with the Gold Line Eastside Extension and the Expo Line, as well.

``By providing continuous through service between these lines, the regional connector will improve regional mobility, minimize transfers, reduce station crowding and improve access to both local and regional destinations,'' a Metro statement says.

Metro officials estimate the connector could reduce one-way trips across the county by 10 to 30 minutes.

The public meetings will be held at the following times and locations:

-- 4:30 p.m. today at the University of Southern California's Davidson Conference Center, 3415 S. Figueroa St., Alumni Room;

-- 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lake Avenue Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena;

-- 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. First St., Los Angeles; and

-- noon Thursday at the Los Angeles Central Library, 630

New Format as of 3-30-2009

I have tried to use links to save space and make it as easy as possible to find specific information. Since links to newspapers frequently become obsolete and require money to obtain older articles, whole articles will now appear. Where possible links will still be used.

Times and place scheduled for the Rail line connector meetings

Regional Connector Transit Corridor Study - Meetings

Meeting over linking the 3 MTA rail lines in Downtown.

blogdowntown: New Round of Regional Connector Input Meetings Kick Off Monday

Another article on connecting the Gold, Red and Blue lines in downtown with a breakdown of the funding.

Metro to unveil $1.3 billion rail-connector proposal - LA Daily News